Copyright The Associated Press
A federal judge has found a former California man accused of setting a fire outside the Burlington office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2024 not competent to assist in his defense. Judge William K. Sessions III wrote in a ruling last week that 36-year-old Shant Soghomonian, who has been detained since his arrest days after the incident, would remain in federal custody. The judge added that, while in custody, Soghomonian shall receive treatment in a “suitable facility for a reasonable period of time, not to exceed four months” to determine whether “he will attain capacity to permit the proceeding to go forward.” Sessions wrote that the director at the facility treating Soghomonian will file a report “detailing the status of treatment and probability of improvement.” Then, the judge wrote, he will review that report to decide how to move forward in the case. At this point, Sessions wrote, Soghomonian is unable to assist properly in his defense. Soghomonian was accused of setting fire to the entryway leading to Sanders’ office in the historic downtown building on Church Street on April 5, 2024. The independent senator was not in the office at the time, and none of his seven staffers who were in the building was physically injured, according to court records. The building, which also housed businesses including a law firm and bank, sustained water damage, and the door leading to the senator’s office was charred, the court documents stated. Soghomonian, who in the past had lived in California, had been renting rooms in hotels around Chittenden County in the days leading up to the fire, according to court records. Sessions, in his ruling, wrote that he relied on reviews of Soghomonian by mental health experts in finding him not competent to assist in his own defense. The judge also wrote that Soghomonian made statements in court during an earlier hearing that the federal public defender’s office as well as prosecutors were “suppressing the truth” and that officials were covering up violence and terror from the government. “He is too suspicious of the legal proceedings and his own defense counsel to assist properly in his own defense,” Sessions wrote. At a hearing in the case in federal court in Burlington in August, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lasher, a prosecutor, argued that Soghomonian was not competent, while Charles Curlett Jr., representing Soghomonian, contended that his client was competent. Sessions took the matter under advisement, leading to his written ruling last week. ___
